By Espen Ronneberg, SPREP's Climate Change Adviser
Financing for climate change is generally viewed as the key building block for achieving progress on mitigation and adaptation, and while the fast-start financing announced at the Copenhagen Conference in 2009 have contributed to improvements, Pacific Island Countries contend that more needs to be done.
Joining other developing countries, in 2011 Pacific Island Countries called for a commitment by developed country Parties to a goal of jointly mobilising USD 100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation. 
As a result a work programme on long term financing was developed and SPREP was invited to attend one of its workshops in Manila in July 2013. The focus of this work programme is twofold; first, to inform developed country Parties in their efforts to identify pathways for mobilising scaled-up climate finance to USD 100bn from public, private and alternative sources for meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation; and second, to inform all Parties in enhancing their enabling environments and policy frameworks to facilitate the mobilisation and effective deployment of climate finance in developing countries.
Themes and key questions to facilitate the discussions were formulated, building on analytical and technical discussions held in 2012. At the Manila meeting SPREP focused on examining the particular challenges of Pacific Island Countries in accessing and absorbing climate change finance, that one size does not fit all, and those mechanisms that can attract flows from international and domestic sources of finance for low-carbon and climate-resilient project development in developing countries must take stock of these challenges.
SPREP also described the engagement of finance and economic ministers, resulting in the identification of local priorities, including budgetary support and national, regional trust funds. The importance was underlined of augmenting support at the regional level for individual countries to support attempts to access bilateral resources. Further work under this work programme would next be focused on elements of pathways, notably the building blocks, sources, channels for delivery and timing.
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